Killian & the Comeback Kids
2018, 136 minutes
A folk-rock film.
Killian's first summer after college is all set. A brief stop in his hometown before he and best friend/bandmate, Ben, embark on a modest music tour and then the rest of their lives. But when Ben drops out at the last minute Killian finds himself back in his rural hometown with no plans and not prospects. A mixed race kid with a big education and no where to put it. Soon a chance encounter with a childhood acquaintance gives the summer new direction. Killian's not the only one to find himself back home after an exorbitantly priced four years, an experience typical of a third of all millennials. That said, thanks to a new sponsor, the massive music festival that takes over the outskirts of town every year, FEST, has a slot for a local act. Usually Ben's backup, Killian is forced to take the spotlight and summon a band out of the other 'failed' locals and win the FEST slot. Soon enough everyone in the dying steel town knows about the band’s hopes and rallies around them, for good and bad. A little folk-rock musical set at the cross section of small town America and a burgeoning youth culture only just beginning to find its voice. More “Once” than “La La Land,” “Killian & the Comeback Kids” sings through the freshly American experience of elongated adolescence, crossed cultures, and the side effects of a nation bent towards progress.
